Orquesta Casino de la Playa, founded in 1937 in Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, was a band that took its name from the name of the casino where they worked. This orchestra made a bridge between Cuban popular music and the sound of American Jazz Big Bands. The band was also a platform for the birth of so many important musicians in Cuban music.

History

In the middle of 1937, the RCA Victor made a variety of recordings in Havana with more than 20 groups with different formats. The Orquesta Casino de la Playa recorded six numbers, and among this songs they performed a version of the classic Arsenio Rodríguez

Arsenio Rodríguez

Arsenio Rodríguez was a Cuban musician who played the tres , reorganized the conjunto and developed the son montuno, and other Afro-Cuban rhythms in the 1940s and 50s...

´s Bruca Maniguá. With this recordings, they began their growth in and outside of Cuba. Between 1937 and 1939, the band recorded over 60 songs and made several tours all along América

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

.

In 1941, the director of the orchestra Anselmo Sacasas

Anselmo Sacasas

Anselmo Sacasas was a Cuban jazz pianist and bandleader.He was a member of the "Orquesta Casino de la Playa" with Miguelito Valdés from 1937 to 1940 and the bandleader of "Anselmo Sacasas and his Orchestra" from 1942 to 1947.In later life Sacasas worked as musical director at the San Juan Hotel in...

 and the singer Miguelito Valdés

Miguelito Valdés

Miguelito Valdés, born Miguel Ángel Eugenio Lázaro Zacarias Izquierdo Valdés Hernández , also called Mr. Babalú, was a Cuban popular singer of high quality...

 abandoned the band and travel to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to develop their own projects. Sacasas was susbtituted by Julio Gutiérrez.

The Casino de la Playa used several singers until 1945, when the popular Cascarita

Cascarita

Orlando Guerra [gayr'-rah] was a popular Cuban singer specialized in native musical forms such as guaracha, pregón and son montuno. Affectively nicknamed Cascarita, he was born on September 14, 1920 in Camagüey, the third largest city of Cuba and the capital of Camagüey Province.Guerra started his...

joined the band. Further, Dámaso Pérez Prado played piano and arranged for the band for a short time until he left Cuba and settled in México

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, where he developed his own vision of mambo.

Relevance

The Casino de la Playa orchestra can be considered as one of the first Cuban jazz bands. This kind of band played a repertoire of Cuban songs with the characteristic sound of an American jazz band but, in the case of Cuban groups, it was especially important the presence of high quality singers, as well as some of the biggest musicians in Cuban popular music history.